Prairie dogs - who's to blame? A great mystery - solved.

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Darth Vile

New member
Udvarnoky said:
I honestly haven't been paying attention to the argument going on here, but this statement of yours strikes me as a bit ridiculous. Spielberg is no more qualified a judge of broken tension in a film than any given movie watcher - that's what a judge of tension is. It'd be one thing if you were saying something like, "Spielberg knows more about directing a movie than you do," but a judge of tension? If anything that's the audience's jurisdiction.
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I think you are being a little pedantic there. You are correct that the true judges are the audience themselves... However, Spielberg is a master of eliciting emotion from an audience. Therefore, Spielberg probably has a good grasp of how to do that. I think that was the point MW was making.
 
Crusade>Raiders

Crusade>Raiders

New member
Major West said:
What's wrong with catering for young children?
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jar-jar-binks-posters3.jpg
 
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Udvarnoky

Well-known member
Darth Vile said:
I think you are being a little pedantic there. You are correct that the true judges are the audience themselves... However, Spielberg is a master of eliciting emotion from an audience. Therefore, Spielberg probably has a good grasp of how to do that. I think that was the point MW was making.
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Glad you were able to see it that way.
 
Cole

Cole

New member
To me, the prairie dog popping out of the hill is a fresh, humorous take on the Indy tradition of the Paramount logo fading into the picture. And they even used the "old school" Paramount logo. Loved it.

Their unexpected appearances are funny. The rocket sled blazing by and then the shot of the little band of prairie dogs watching it go by got one of the biggest laughs in the theaters I watched it with.

I think there is a difference between lighthearted humor and juvenile humor. And this is genuine lighthearted humor and genuinely entertaining.

The cynicism of some audience members that lighthearted entertainment like this somehow "insults" them is pretty funny though. Maybe they had to chug a 6-pack after the movie to re-affirm their manhood...
 
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Hatayster

New member
I never had any big problem with those prairie dogs; they were an okay addition to the film and the three apperances they had were enough.
 
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tambourineman

New member
For the life of me I'll never understand the fanboy uproar over them. I heard all about them before seeing the film, and going by the ranting and raving I was expecting something out of caddyshack, I was expecting cartoon gophers doing a dance number or something. Then I saw it and I was like "Thats it??!" A couple of seconds of reasonably realistic gophers doing things gophers could do? If you blinked you'd miss them altogether. Typical fanboy over-reaction.
 
Morning Bell

Morning Bell

New member
I was never bothered by the prairie dogs. They only appeared in the film for a few seconds and didn't affect the plot or do anything dramatic. People seem to be making too big a deal out of them.
 
DocWhiskey

DocWhiskey

Well-known member
Morning Bell said:
They only appeared in the film for a few seconds and didn't affect the plot or do anything dramatic. People seem to be making too big a deal out of them.
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Story of KOTCS's life.
 
Rocket Surgeon

Rocket Surgeon

Guest
tambourineman said:
For the life of me I'll never understand the fanboy uproar over them. I heard all about them before seeing the film, and going by the ranting and raving I was expecting something out of caddyshack, I was expecting cartoon gophers doing a dance number or something. Then I saw it and I was like "Thats it??!" A couple of seconds of reasonably realistic gophers doing things gophers could do? If you blinked you'd miss them altogether. Typical fanboy over-reaction.
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The opening disovle was fine it was the OTHER friggin two times, talk about over kill!
 
lao che & sons

lao che & sons

New member
I never minded the prairie dogs. But it did make me mad tha they did theme cgi. I love the shot of the rocket sled and we see the prarie dogs shadows. But if this film was made 2 years after LC then the prarie dogs would've been real just like the monkey in raiders. That's my 1 complaint about crystal skul is that they used too much cgi I hope they lay off the cgi for indy 5(y)
 
Rocket Surgeon

Rocket Surgeon

Guest
tambourineman said:
Yeah, unneccessary but hardly worth mentioning at all really, let alone the amount of bandwidth thats been devoted to them.
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That whole close up ending of Anakin/ObiWan/Chancellor/R2 Crash landing Grevious' ship was Speilbergs recommendation to Lucas...intended to bring more life to the scene.

It would have been better to give us a more dynamic angle on the rocket sled, one element of the film which could have been more exciting! (Imagine having a rocket sled in a film and it NOT be exciting! It really wasn't). Instead we got to sit behind a row of gophers in the theater who had no idea what they were watching. What a squandered opportunity, lack of imagination and effort.

While there's nothing wrong with the long shot, (it's wise to use as an establishing shot), a view (or two) from close up might have given us a greater sense of the speed and fury...(and deafening sound) of a rocket sled.

Like Mac pointing to us in the theater, breaking the fourth wall to say [we] pay...maybe this can be seen as commentary on the type of people they're making Crystal Skull for.
 
D

Darth Vile

New member
Rocket Surgeon said:
It would have been better to give us a more dynamic angle on the rocket sled, one element of the film which could have been more exciting! (Imagine having a rocket sled in a film and it NOT be exciting! It really wasn't). Instead we got to sit behind a row of gophers in the theater who had no idea what they were watching. What a squandered opportunity, lack of imagination and effort.

While there's nothing wrong with the long shot, (it's wise to use as an establishing shot), a view (or two) from close up might have given us a greater sense of the speed and fury...(and deafening sound) of a rocket sled.
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Not sure I'd agree... The rocket sled scene (as "in flight") is what, 30 seconds long? I thought it was a pretty visceral few seconds, with the speed well reflected via the G-forced faces of Ford and Dovchenko, and the long shot of the sled whizzing past camera. That?s not to say that I think the CGI gophers are needed (as I don?t think they are), but I also think a POV shot (if that?s what you mean) wouldn't have added much.
 
Rocket Surgeon

Rocket Surgeon

Guest
Darth Vile said:
...but I also think a POV shot (if that’s what you mean) wouldn't have added much.
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Not a POV shot. The G-Force faces were a fine start, but (and not exclusively)a track side shot would have gone a long way to giving a better sense of speed, excitement and scale not to mention sound.

That's just one example...
 
Cole

Cole

New member
lao che & sons said:
I never minded the prairie dogs. But it did make me mad tha they did theme cgi. I love the shot of the rocket sled and we see the prarie dogs shadows. But if this film was made 2 years after LC then the prarie dogs would've been real just like the monkey in raiders. That's my 1 complaint about crystal skul is that they used too much cgi I hope they lay off the cgi for indy 5(y)
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I don't think that's really plausible. You can train a monkey but you can't train a gopher.

To try and get a gopher out of the hole, on cue, have it narrowly miss getting nailed by a speeding roadster, not to mention recreating the comical reactions............it would be impossible.
 
Cole

Cole

New member
I disagree.......the sense of speed is there.

They have the shot of the sled emerging from the warehouse at lightning speed, and the fantastic sound effects, which adds a ton.

And has been said, the faces of Indy and Dovenchko.

Great end to the sequence. Indy pushes Dovenchko off his shoulder, and then he stumbles when he tries to get up. You see the cloud of dirt after Indy falls in the background, with Dovenchko regaining his consciousness and getting up in the foreground.

Those expressions that Harrison Ford makes in the role are just fantastic.
 
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